The only difference is that instead of trying to determine who the murderer is, the reader is trying to work out who the fifth columnists are. And yet it has all the hallmarks of an Agatha Christie detective novel. We are so used to thinking of Agatha Christie as a crime detective writer but it quickly becomes apparent that N or M? is not such a work it is a spy thriller. After a series of adventures, mis-understandings, the unmasking of a German spy living in the local community and Tommy’s capture from which he ingeniously snores his way to rescue, the boarding house fifth columnist is revealed in dramatic fashion. Tommy and Tuppence both become boarders and proceed in different ways to investigate the various guests staying in the house. Not to be outdone Tuppence, through some crafty manouevering, gets involved too. It was believed that one or both of the enemy activists, one male and one female dubbed “N” and “M”, are operating out of the boarding house. Song Susie” and it had been deduced that “Song Susie” stands for Sans Souci, a boarding house in the sleepy seaside town of Leahampton. Another British agent had left a cryptic message when he was dying: “N or M. After the outbreak of the Second World War Tommy is approached by a friend of their old intelligence chief and asked to investigate possible fifth column activity. N or M? continues the story of Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, whose adventures when working for British intelligence during the First World War are related in Christie’s The Secret Adversary (1922).
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